Nutrition experts explain why cutting out one food group is like 'going to the gym for your brain'

Many of us will often overhaul our diets to lose weight, and it's well known that shedding pounds can improve the function of our major organs including the heart, kidneys and liver - but what you eat can also have a significant impact on your brain.

This is according to health experts and scientific studies, who have found that certain foods can particularly affect the memory centres of the brain. Felice Jacka, Alfred Deakin Professor of Nutritional Psychiatry, appeared on an episode of the ZOE health podcast alongside ZOE co-founder and CEO Dr Jonathan Wolf, to discuss the impact of ultra-processed foods on the body.

Felice defined ultra-processed food as "food deconstructed from its original ingredients and put back together again, and it usually has a list of other ingredients that are not found in whole foods." She added that these could include artificial sugars, food colourings, preservatives, emulsifiers, and more, the Daily Record reports.

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According to the British Heart Foundation, common ultra-processed foods include obvious snacks such as ice cream, crisps and biscuits, as well as foods you may not necessarily assume are bad for you, like mass-produced bread, instant soups, breakfast cereals, fruit-flavoured yoghurts, sausages and ham. Carbonated drinks are also considered ultra-processed, as are some alcoholic beverages including whisky, gin and rum.

"Ultra-processed foods often contain high levels of saturated fat, salt and sugar and when we eat them, we leave less room in our diets for more nutritious foods," the cardiovascular research charity explains. "It's also been suggested that the additives in these foods could be responsible for negative health effects."

On the podcast, Felice shared that a recent study involving young, healthy individuals was conducted where participants were given a chocolate milkshake and a cheese toastie for breakfast over four days. The results of this study indicated that ultra-processed foods may have an effect on the brain's capacity to learn and memorise.

She elaborated: "In one group, their version of that was very high fat, high sugar, and the other version of that wasn't, and they were randomly assigned to both. And what they saw was within four days, they could see an impact on this hippocampal related learning and memory tasks in these young people."

She also pointed out that by enhancing your diet and reducing ultra-processed foods, brain health can be improved "as little as three weeks".

Jonathan Wolf, the host, chimed in: "You can see that basically, in people with a bad diet and lots of ultra processed food, that actually you can see in real time the hippocampus shrinking. And that's linked to a lot of bad things as well, like dementia.

He added: "And on the other hand, there is this possibility to improve your diet. It's not too late. You can actually grow your hippocampus. So I love that. It's a bit like going to the gym, but for your brain."